by Kumar L
Major Kevin stood ready to activate the outer door, waiting for the signal from Ops.
“You sure you don’t want me to do this, sir? It’s my job after all.” Kevin knew the answer, but he had to offer. To be truthful, he was a little jealous that he would not be doing the shooting.
His boss shook his head. “Not a bloody chance, Major. It’s my shot today.”
Kevin nodded, gave a thumbs up to the Colonel and closed the inner door.
“We’re ready, Captain. Colonel Fraser is in place.”
“Roger, Major. Madhavan, status?” asked Anara.
“Integrity of the EM field is stable. Range extended to five hundred metres. Power diverted to port side EM emitters to reinforce the field.”
“All right then. Manisha, give permission to proceed. Brace for impact.”
“It’s a go, Major,” Manisha informed Kevin.
“Roger that. Best of luck, sir.” He waited, then opened the airlock. He had to give his boss exactly two seconds before he closed the door again. An open door would leave the ship vulnerable during the explosion.
The Colonel was prepared. The rifle was already in his hands, the butt nestling comfortably on his shoulder. No sooner had the door opened than he fired, brought the barrel down, threw away the rifle, turned around and lay down flat on the floor with his hands on his head. The door closed behind him just as the darkness beyond was torn apart by a massive detonation.
◆◆◆
There was no sound, just a burst of energy bright enough to turn the blackness into day for a few seconds before the light dissipated. The shockwave was not as intense as expected because the anti-particle density was low. Bursts of energy collided with the electromagnetic screen, lighting it up in a spectacular display of fireworks. Luckily, the screen held but the ship rocked violently. The explosions propagated away from the ship as anti-matter particles further away were consumed.
Not able to visualise what was happening outside, the few crewmembers on board, held on tight to their seats and the restraints, waiting for the jolting to cease.
◆◆◆
The first shockwave passed, then another and another. It took time but the explosions finally dissipated as all matter in the bullet was annihilated, and the ship grew still. Fraser lifted himself off the floor. He walked to the inner door and waited. Major Kevin opened it and helped him out of the airlock.
“That was quite dramatic, wasn’t it, Major?”
“That it was, sir. Good shooting, by the way. Back to Ops?”
◆◆◆
“Passive detector readings are coming in now. Matter-antimatter annihilation confirmed, ma’am. The Commander was right. We are in a field of antimatter.”
“What’s the particle density?”
“It’s quite low. Only around five thousand per cubic centimetre. That’s surprising considering the size of the explosion, isn’t it?” Manisha remarked.
“Narada?”
“Not just one explosion. It was a series of explosions but with a difference so minute even our sensors were not able to read them. The first contact of matter caused a chain reaction which progressed rapidly in thousandths of a second. Presence of antimatter is confirmed. Particle density here is twice that of matter in normal interstellar space in our own universe. I am unable to find an explanation for the difference. How would you like to proceed?”
“I’m not sure. I was so caught up in trying out the experiment; I did not wait to think what we would do with this data. At least the EM screen held. Connect me to Engineering.” A chirp announced an active connection. “Madhavan, how’re things down there?” asked Anara.
“We are holding together. The shields took out more energy than I had provided for. I estimate we are now down to twelve hours of antimatter fuel.”
Manisha chipped in. “But we are surrounded by antimatter! Can’t we just collect what we need?”
Madhavan sighed. “And just how do we do that? Using a scoop? Get real, Lieutenant.” He was too tired to care if he was being rude to another officer. Manisha looked sheepish. Anara frowned, but chose to ignore the outburst too. “Anyway,” Madhavan continued, “the density is too low. Even if I could design and deploy a magnetic field to form a… a funnel, the few specks of antimatter we do manage to gather would not be enough for our needs. Not to forget, I need pure antimatter particles of a single type exactly opposite to our stored matter particles. One hundred percent pure, Captain. That’s why we manufacture and store antimatter one particle at a time. Do you have any idea what type of particles are outside or their purity?”
“Uh no. We only know it is antimatter based on the last test,” said Anara.
“There you go. It is rocket science. You can’t just pick up what you need by the roadside and expect it to work. One speck of contamination in our fuel and the unbalanced explosion will spread our particles throughout the galaxy!”
“Alright. Alright. Understood, Madhavan. Calm down. We can’t use the particles. Anara out.” She sat brooding for some time. “What about the readouts from the lasers we have sent out, Manisha? We should have had some observations. It’s been some time.”
“No reflections detected so far. The lasers must not have hit anything. That may or may not mean there are no solid objects out there. It was a long shot anyway. We only fired a hundred and seventy-two beams. That didn’t even cover all degrees on a plane, forget about covering all the degrees of a sphere.”
Anara removed her restraint and stood up. She wanted to walk. It always helped her think. That was getting difficult: both walking and thinking. Twelve hours. That is all I have to save my crew and my ship.
“If there are antimatter particles out there, where have they come from? Spontaneous generation? Leftovers from a big bang event?” wondered Anara. “What came first, this space or these particles? Narada?”
“As I had stated earlier, it is more likely they are the antiparticle equivalents of matter absorbed by a black hole,” stated Narada. “Maybe it is Hawking radiation in reverse. Some of the antiparticles escape at the event horizon but a lot more get passed on to another dimension.”
“Which then turn into particles at the white hole and flow back into our universe. So there should be a flow, shouldn’t there? From the black hole to the white?”
“Flow? What kind of flow, ma’am?” Manisha was quite involved now.
“A flow of particles, Manisha! Like… like a river, though of extremely low density. We need to find the direction of flow and follow it to reach the white hole.”
“And then what?”
Anara did not have the answer yet to that, but there was a glimmer of an idea. “Let’s cross that bridge when we come to it. I’m hoping we will be able to find a reverse portal to get out of this space—a white hole. Narada, anything we can use to detect the flow of particles?”
“With only five thousand particles of antimatter every cubic centimetre? Our detectors are not powerful enough to monitor them.”
“We can use the detectors from our matter-antimatter engines, but they would need to be outside our EM screen to work properly. Only, once they are outside the screen they will be annihilated on coming in contact with the antimatter. That would probably destroy us as well.” A classic catch-22. Damned if I do. Damned if I don’t.
“Madhavan get up here. I’ve got another task for you.”
◆◆◆
Madhavan walked through the darkened corridors, a breathing mask on his face. He shivered in the cold. With environment controls down, temperatures across the ship had plummeted. Only three areas, besides the dome, had heat, light and air—Ops, Medical and Engineering. The whole situation felt like his worst nightmare. Give him an engine to work with, a mechanical problem to solve, and he was in his element. Being captured by a black hole was definitely not his cup of tea. Still he was grateful to be alive and safe from whatever was killing his crewmates. He half-walked, half-staggered into Ops, exhausted from having been at his station wi
thout a break for several hours.
“Hey, Captain. How’re you holding up?” He tried to sound cheerful.
Anara turned around at the sound of his voice.
“I’m fine, Madhavan. And you?” Her voice was kindly. Madhavan had become another one of her rocks. Solid, dependable.
“I can manage, though a few hours of sleep and a decent cup of coffee would work wonders. I must tell you, this has been one hell of a ride. I can’t wait to find what else you’ve got in store for me. We’ve got less than twelve hours of juice left. The ship took a real beating with the last test. What have you planned next for me?”
“Another conundrum which is right down your alley. It involves detecting antimatter flow in the space outside. That’s why I called you up here. Is there anything that you can rig up?”
“An antimatter detector? Sure. I can bring up a couple from the M-AM fuel chamber. Where do you want them?”
“The antimatter particles are outside our EM screen. Five thousand particles per cubic centimetre.”
“Outside the screen? You mean out there?” He walked over to a porthole and stared outside. “But if there are antimatter particles out there, the matter in the detectors will annihilate when it comes in contact with them. I explained all this earlier.” He turned around looking at her quizzically. “Isn’t that what happened when you fired the bullet? Wasn’t that the point of the whole exercise?”
“It was and we proved our assumption. Now we need to take the next step. With Ryan out of action, I’m really trying to improvise.” Was it her imagination or was the air in Ops starting to taste stale? Twelve hours of power remaining. Madhavan must have used up all his ingenuity trying to squeeze out every bit of energy from the system. “Can’t you rig the detectors up with some sort of a portable EM shield or something?”
While Madhavan was considering the possibilities, the door opened and the Colonel walked in adorned with his own breathing apparatus.
“Maybe,” Madhavan said. “But I have very little time to design, build and put up a portable EM generator of sufficient strength. Can’t be done. Besides, with a portable shield, the detectors won’t work. They detect particles based on changes in the magnetic field they generate, when it encounters antimatter particles. With another EM shield around the detector, there is no way they can work.” He shook his head. “Sorry. But you’ll need another idea.”
Anara walked up to the sound of his voice, reached out and held his arms. “I don’t have any other ideas. I don’t even know what we will do after we detect the flow, but it was a working hypothesis. Without a detector, we have nothing.”
◆◆◆
“Looks like my excellent shot did not have the consequences you expected, Captain,” remarked Fraser.
“S12, come here,” Anara commanded. The robot moved to her side and she walked a few metres towards the Colonel with its support.
“Yes, it did. It allowed us to definitively prove the existence of antimatter outside. Let’s not give up hope so easily.” She turned around, her eyes bright and alert though without sight. “We have faced multiple hurdles in the last few days and yet we have survived. The universe has thrown its greatest challenge at us and we have survived. We have faced the ultimate form of death known to humankind, and yet with some skill, a few timely hunches and a bit of luck we have cheated it. I have been on the verge of giving up so many times and yet we have persisted. Isn’t that what human spirit is all about? Tenacity and belief that there is always a way! This time I am sure we will find a way. We have to believe, and we have to try, if not for ourselves then for our colleagues who are in stasis and dependant on us for safety.” It is always about balancing energy, isn’t it? Even with people. It is my job to counter the negative energy in my people with positivity. How could I have missed that?
Her small speech had added positive energy to her crew. It held them together. Held her together.
“Well? Do you wanna keep trying or throw your hands up and give up?” She threw down the challenge to her team.
No one spoke for a moment.
“We will try, of course, till, as you so neatly put it, the universe manages to crush us. Tell me what I can do,” said Fraser. This woman was a great officer. He was proud to be working with her. He had finally understood Captain Anara, the individual. The leader.
“We keep trying to make some sense of this new universe around us and use Narada to replace Ryan. He’s good, of course, and he can process billions of calculations per second. But he cannot think out of the box like Ryan could. No offence, Narada.”
“None taken, ma’am. What would you like to discuss?”
“We are not able to detect either of the holes, right—the black hole through which we entered this space or the theoretically possible white hole we are seeking? But we have also not left our position ever since we came in. Maybe what our sensors have missed, our eyes will show us. Your eyes I mean. We need to travel.”
“I’m not sure what you’re proposing? Could you be more specific for me to program a route?” If he had been human, Narada would have cocked his head to one side, listening intently.
“If the lasers do not come back, if we cannot see the antiparticles, then we need to search the space around us using our own eyes. We move the ship and take a look,” said Anara.
“You want to fly the ship into the void surrounding us? With no means of navigation, minimal propulsion and the four of us as the crew? That’s…that’s…” Madhavan was at a loss for a diplomatic word.
“Crazy, right?” Anara cut in, with a grin. “On the other hand, why do we need navigation? There is nothing out there! At sub-light speed, we will not run into anything, even though I am hoping we do. How long can we sustain sub-light speed, say at twenty percent?”
“You’re serious, aren’t you? You do know that even for twenty percent sub-light speed we will need fuel. Lots of it. Fuel that we don’t have. We can’t make the ship go to those speeds.”
“How about a hundred thousand kph? Is that possible?” Anara was persistent.
Madhavan thought this through. “I know I promised to help you any way I can, but you keep asking me to perform miracles.” Equations and numbers churned in the back of his mind.
“We have had quite a few miracles, Mr Madhavan. What’s the harm in seeking a few more?” Fraser said. “It is clear that she is serious. Come, I’ll help you, as will Major Kevin. Let’s get started.”
Madhavan gave him the eye, then grudgingly donned his breathing mask and followed Fraser out. He paused at the door and looked at Anara. “You can have two hundred thousand kph, not one. For two hours tops, no more.” It would be close, but I think we can pull this off. Just need to keep a sharp eye for any consumption spikes. What other equipment can I turn off to buy more time?
“Thank you, Madhavan,” she called to his retreating back as the door closed behind him and the Colonel.
◆◆◆
“We have power,” reported Manisha.
“The conn is yours, Manisha,” The ship was in the hands of this young pilot now.
“Which way should we go?” Manisha asked.
“How about straight ahead? Easiest thing to do. You do realise we are never coming back here again, don’t you? We can’t drop a marker as a beacon because it will be immediately destroyed. And while we may be able to keep tabs on the distance we travel using inertial guidance, we will never know if we go off course. So straight line it is.” Amazing how much clarity a little bit of hope can give you.
“Yes, ma’am,” Manisha replied as the power display showed the engines ready to engage. She moved her hand to get the ship moving. “Increasing to two hundred thousand kph.” The increasing vibrations filled her with a sense of familiarity. Flying a ship was what she had been trained to do.
22
The Flow
"All systems are failing, Capitaine! We cannot break the hold of the gravity.”
“Maudit! Black hole!” That is what Captai
n Antoine’s science officer had told him, but he could still barely believe it. Caught in the event horizon of a black hole! How could that have happened! For the past many hours, he had maintained maximum reverse thrust on his engines, but it had not worked. They were being in sucked in. They were out of time.
“Anyone has any more ideas, I am listening?” He paused. “Antariksh. They were in the same region as us. Maybe they have an answer?”
“We tried calling them, as you ordered, Capitaine,” Elise said. “They did not respond.”
“Then no one is coming to our rescue. Marcel!” he called out to his engineer, “one last try. Reverse gravity now!”
The engineer was scrambling to carry out this command when the ship accelerated in the final stages. It was too little too late. The CDG with its crew had barely entered the singularity when the engines failed and the ship’s gravity field collapsed.
◆◆◆
Time passed in silence: only the soft whooshing of air from the circulation system could be heard in Ops. Anara had tilted her head back on the headrest and fallen into a light sleep.
“Captain! Captain! Wake up!” Manisha called out suddenly from her control station.
Anara was up instantly. Wow! I fell asleep with my eyes open. A small advantage of being completely blind, she thought sarcastically.
“I’m up, Manisha!” The most ridiculous thought hit her. “How did you know I was sleeping? I thought my eyes were open.”